The mission of the USGBC Heart of Florida Chapter is to promote the design, construction and operation of sustainable buildings, provide educational programs, support sustainable community activities and further the goals of environmental responsibility, prosperity, and provision of healthy places for the North Florida region.

Announcements

Courthouse HVAC Replacement Project

The Alachua County Courthouse was recently featured in Design Cost Data Magazine - check out the link here This award winning project saves Alachua County tax payers over $22,000 per year. This innovative project was Green Globes certified.

The Community Weatherization Coalition is set to re-start!

They are looking for a few good people to help in their mission to improve weatherization and energy efficiency for low-income households through educational and volunteer-based work projects.

Would you like to:

Be trained as an "energy auditor," working with low income residents to help improve the efficiency of their homes and thus, reduce their energy bills?

Partner with other community groups to learn together about effective ways for families and communities to save resources through greater energy efficiency?

Volunteer 2-4 hours per month doing energy assessments, and making a BIG impact in low-income, high usage environments?

The CWC is getting ready to train the next class of auditors so that we can help more low-income homeowners in our community. The three-part spring auditor training will take place:

For more information, click HERE.
To sign-up for the next Auditor Training, click HERE.

SOW IT GROWS FARM TOUR!

Florida Organic Growers and friends bring you the 2nd annual Sow It Grows Farm Tour, to be held on April 25 and 26, 2015 in the Gainesville, Florida area. The creation of this farm tour is with the intention to better connect farmers and consumers, increase the capacity of the local farming community, and to create a more viable and vibrant local food system. Visitors are able to see the reality of where their food comes from and what life is like on small, sustainable farms. The hope is that the relationships built from these interactions will translate to a more informed and lasting customer base. The tour is free and open to the public! For more information check out their event page on Facebook.

GREEN SCHOOL UPDATE:

Local High Springs teacher Judith Weaver named a “Trailblazing Teacher” by the USGBC! Read the full article here.

The USGBC Heart of Florida Chapter is proud to announce a new initiative -- our Green Veterans Group. The Green Veterans program is dedicated to helping our nation's heroes learn about sustainable building and green living, while at the same time helping ease the hardship of military-to-civilian transition. By empowering Veterans to be volunteer leaders in their communities, the program's goals are to nurture opportunities for continuing education, networking, employment, corporate engagement and green entrepreneurship.

The Green Veterans program is spreading across the USGBC Chapters network. To learn more, click here.

As with all Chapter initiatives, the lifeblood of our Green Veterans Group is our volunteers. If you are interested in helping us grow this important program in our community, including sponsorship opportunities that will shine a bright spotlight on your company, please contact Nancey Jones.